It comes after a bitter row broke out earlier this year between some parents and staff and the school’s governing body, who wanted the school to join multi-academy trust United Learning.
The school was forced to close in May after teachers walked out in protest at the plans.
The Office of the Regional Schools Commissioner received a notice from Ofsted on June 7 confirming the school was rated as “inadequate and has serious weaknesses”, according to a warning notice sent to the school’s members and trustees.
“Any funding agreement for an academy may be terminated by the Secretary of State where special measures are required to be taken by the academy or the academy requires significant improvement and the Chief Inspector of Ofsted has given notice under section 13(3) (a) of the Act on Education since 2005,” the notification said.
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Ofsted found that “leadership turbulence” had “destabilised” the school community and that most aspects of school life had “diminished significantly since the previous inspection”.
The assessment said that despite an interim principal’s desire to make things better for students, “the change needed is too slow.”
“Leadership is poor and unfit for purpose. Too many responsibilities are carried by too few leaders,” the notice said.
“Many remaining leaders are overstretched and overwhelmed. This means they are not doing enough to address weaknesses, particularly deteriorating student behavior and attitudes.”
Parents protest outside Holland Park School
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The notice said Ofsted found that staff lacked training in managing pupil behaviour, which had led to an increase in “significantly disruptive behavior around school and in the neighbourhood”.
Ofsted also criticized the school’s curriculum, claiming it was “too focused on pupils taking GCSE exams early”.
“This means that students do not routinely receive sufficient depth and breadth of knowledge in some subjects,” it said.
The Regional Schools Commissioner for North West London and South Central, Dame Kate Dethridge, said she should be satisfied that “rapid and sustained improvement” would be made at the academy.
If not, she will terminate the funding agreement to transfer the academy to an alternative academy trust, she said in the notification letter.
Written submissions in response to the termination notice were due by July 1.
A group of parents said the decision to rate the school as failing was “irrational”.
They argued that the timing of the inspection – as the school is embroiled in a dispute over whether it should join an academic chain – was an abuse of power.
The group, made up of members of Holland Park School’s parents’ collective, wrote to Ofsted saying it could launch a judicial review of the report.
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